What Ferguson and the Middle East Really Have in Common

The Washington Post recently published an article comparing the police response to protesters in Ferguson, Mo. with the violent and repressive actions of governments in international conflicts, namely in the Middle East and North Africa. From the use of riot gear designed to make police officers look more like soldiers than law enforcers, to the arrest of journalists, the blind tear gassing of protesters including one state senatorand the establishment of a no-fly zone over the region, Ferguson looks more like “Fergustan,” to use Anupe Kaphle’s term.

Ferguson and the Middle East do have one striking commonality, but it has less to do with armored vehicles in the streets than with the way in which the media assigns culpability to black and brown bodies for the violence perpetrated against them. The media’s criminalization of victims, and their subsequent degradation and dehumanization, is what Ferguson and the Middle East really have in common.

By drawing a further comparison between Ferguson and the Middle East, my intention is not to blur the unique oppression faced by African Americans in this country, nor compare distinct systems of oppression as they operate. However, the solidarity between Palestinians and protestors in Ferguson is worth noting, and speaks to not only a shared experience of oppression, but also a shared understanding that the media tends to back the claims of the oppressors in each of these situations.

 

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